S.W.I.F.T. made easy

The Society for the Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) was founded in Brussels in 1973. SWIFT was started by European bankers who had the need for a more secure system for interbank communications and transfer of funds and securities. Before the Society was established interbank communications were by telephone, telex, courier, or mail. Today more than 7,000 financial establishments across 194 countries worldwide make use of S.W.I.F.T. messaging and transaction processing services.

The EFT for International Banking

A SWIFT consists of a one-page document containing the name and code of the originating bank, the date and time, the address and code of the receiving bank, the name and internal code of the officer initiating the transmission, the names and numbers of the accounts involved in the transfer, a description of the asset being transferred and the MT category of the transmission.

SWIFT Message

SWIFT messages are pre-set and referred to by category numbers called MT numbers. For instance, MT800's only deal with Traveler's Checks, MT300's only deal with Foreign Currency Exchanges.

Each MT category has its own manual of standards. What this means is that one cannot write SWIFT instructions that do not work with the pre-set messages and expect the sending bank to accept them, or the receiving bank to respond.